HYDERABAD

Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao on Thursday called on Union Minister of Agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan in New Delhi and made several requests on behalf of the farming community of Telangana, including inclusion of maize and jowar crops under the price support scheme, enhancement of sunflower procurement quota by the Centre, for a clear policy on herbicide tolerant cotton and others.

During the meeting with the Union Minister along with Secretary (Agriculture) of Telangana K. Surendra Mohan, Mr. Nageswara Rao explained to the former about the adverse conditions being faced by the farming community of Telangana, financial problems due to lack of remunerative price to the produce in the open market, need for enhancing horticultural crops’ extent, problems in procurement of crops, agricultural policies for the future among others.

He stated that the Telangana Government was giving top priority to farmers’ welfare, crop diversification, water conservation and encouragement to horticultural crops. Though the State government was procuring some crops which were not being procured under PSS by the Centre, there was a need for Centre’s help, he stressed.

On the marketing problem of maize and jowar this Rabi season, Mr. Nageswara Rao stated that the two crops were cultivated in over 20.3 lakh acres with production estimated at over 47.25 lakh tonnes following favourable weather conditions and good yield. Flooding of the market with the produce had pushed the market prices down as traders were buying them at much lesser price compared to the minimum support price.

He explained that the traders were buying maize at ₹1,800 per quintal against the MSP fixed by the Centre at ₹2,400 per quintal. As part of helping the farmers, the State Government had already opened 336 procurement centres and had purchased 11.45 lakh tonnes of maize so far. However, the price of the produce in the open market was not stabilising around the MSP as the produce was flooding the market. He requested the Union Minister to procure at least 14.9 lakh tonnes of maize and 2.01 lakh tonnes of jowar through Central nodal agencies.

On the procurement of sunflower, Mr. Nageswara Rao said the quota of 3,690 tonnes’ procurement fixed by the Centre was not enough as the farmers were getting much lesser price than ₹7,721 per quintal of MSP in the open market. He urged the Union Minister to enhance the procurement quota to at least 15,262 tonnes.

He also sought a clear policy on the herbicide tolerant cotton varieties flooding the market in the absence of any policy and its adverse impact on biodiversity. He sought support for micro irrigation extension to another 34,000 hectares in 2026-27.